Concepts Overview

Top 100 List of Architecture Concepts and Architecture Principles

Here is a list of 100 shared and modern concepts and principles to be chosen as part of an enterprise architecture. Various generalizations, specializations, and combinations are described and tested for every concept in the literature. Using sound literature when referring to a particular concept is recommended. For many concepts, products on the market implement (parts) of these concepts. In your architecture documents, there should not be vendor and product names when you want to refer to concepts.

In this list, every architecture principle is written down in the format "concept name" followed by a "short principle statement". The short principle statements consist mostly of four parts: action, effect, enforcement, and result. This format ensures that we do not write down general rules or guidelines, but rather write down principles (i.e., working mechanisms).

Many of these concepts you will already recognize. They are specializations of functions or quality aspects. Functions are general concepts.

You will also see generalizations and specialization of concepts in the list: computing, client computing, server computing, client-server computing.

In the menu on the left, you find different types of architectures that go into detail about the architecture principles mentioned here.

A basic list of 100 common architecture principles is:

Enterprise, Governance, and Business Concepts and their Principles

1. Complexity
2. Complexity Reduction
3. Monitoring Principle [PDF]
4. Separation of Concerns - By separating concerns, ...
5. Modularity - By grouping functionality into modules, ...
6. Simplicity - By creating a system that is as simple as possible, ...
7. Diversity - By creating a situation as diverse as possible, ...
8. Standardization / Technology Standardization - By standardizing the way of ..., it is ensured that ...
9. Centralization - By centralizing ...
10. Decentralization - By decentralizing ...
11. Centralized Authentication -
12. Federated Authentication -
13. Single Source of Truth - By having only one official source ...
14. Buy before build - By buying before building ...
15. Product differentiation -
16. Business Need Prioritization -
17. Leadership -
18. Business Agility -
19. Product Value Maximization -
20. Master Data Governance -
21. Working Domain Oriented / Domain Orientation
22. Process Management / Process Orientation
23. Product Management / Product Orientation
24. Service Management / Service Orientation
25. Client Management / Customer Orientation
26. Office Orientation (Using Buildings to organize work)
27. Plant Orientation (Using Plants for Production)
28. Employee Motivation
29. Loyalty / Loyalty Programs
30. Working Paperless / Paperless Office
31. Working With Architecture
32. Outsourcing
33. Offshoring
34. Sustainability
35. Adaptivity
36. Production
37. Zero Waste Production
38. Series Production
39. Mass Production
40. Code of Governance
41. Transparency
42. Openness
43. Business Continuity
44. Innovation
45. Transformation
46. Business Transformation
47. Digital Transformation
48. Strategy Planning
49. Case Management
50. Permanent Education

Information Concepts and their Principles

1. Asset Management (Maximize value of assets)
2. Accountability
3. Multi-Channel Management
4. Omni Channel Management
5. Dependability
6. Availability
7. Confidentiality
8. Authenticity
9. Integrity
10. Patenting / Intellectual Property / Copyrighting
11. eLearning / Blended Learning / Class-Based Learning

Application and Data Concepts and their Principles

1. Application Coherence
2. Interoperability
3. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
4. System Life Cycle Management
5. Reuse maximization
6. Master Data Management
7. Data Management
8. Data Hiding
9. Data Encapsulation
10. Data Reuse (Not Replication)
11. Data Privacy
12. Data Lake
13. Loosely Coupling
14. Interfacing
15. Service Broker and Consumer
16. Rules Engine
17. Canonical Domains (CDM)

Technology / IT Infrastructure Concepts and their Principles

1. IT Service Management
2. Capacity Planning
3. Power consumption reduction
4. Automated Monitoring
5. Redundancy
6. Deduplication
7. Robotization
8. Automation
9. Digitization
10. SAN
11. NAS
12. DMZ
13. Single Sign On
14. Computing
15. Client Computing
16. Server Based Computing
17. Client Server Computing
18. Cloud Computing
19. Virtualization
20. Network Virtualization
21. Application Virtualization
22. Server Virtualization
23. Green Energy
24. Service, Service Orientation
25. Self Service
26. Process, Process Orientation, Business Process Management
27. Business Process Orientation
28. Sales Process
29. Computing
30. Cloud Computing
31. Bitcoin
32. Mobile Payments
33. Smart
34. Smart City
35. Autonomous Cars
36. Robotics
37. Nanotechnology
38. Virtualization (Server, Application, Network)
39. Big Data
40. Big Data Analytics
41. Business Intelligence
42. Software, Software Applications
43. Software as a Service (SaaS)
44. Application Programmers Interface (API)
45. XML
46. IoT
47. Blockchain
48. Data Visualization
49. Empowerment
50. eProcurement
51. 3D Printing
52. HR
53. Marketing
54. Omnichannel
55. DevOps
56. Agile

Cyber Security Architecture Concepts and their Principles

1. Privacy by Design
2. Least Privilege
3. Layered Security
4. Fault Tolerant
5. Default Deny

The Client and Server Concept

Many of us are familiar with the concepts of Client and Server. These concepts are prevalent, and every organization worldwide will utilize them. These concepts always require a context, definition, and explanation of what they mean, but they also help communicate designs, problems, and solutions.

Client and Server as words are abstracts. A client can refer to either a person or an organization that purchases goods or services from a company. Still, it can also refer to a computer or phone where a software application connects with a software application from a large company.

Server can also mean many things, such as a hosting computer for large applications or an application itself, but it can also refer to a person or thing that serves others.

As architects, we need to specialize in our Client and Server concepts to make clear what we mean. For example, a physical mobile computer client and a virtual file server provide the reader or viewer with more context as to what is meant. And if you provide a model or diagram icons that address the attributes of these concepts, it becomes even clearer.

You can also combine concepts into new concepts, like Client Server Computing or Server Based Computing. These concepts address different 'ways of working', and depending on the situation, one approach is better suited for the task than the other.

To know which one is best suited for the task or situation, an architect looks at the principle of the concept, the working mechanism - the way the elements of the concept work together to produce a result.

Concept Name	Principle Statement	Key Elements
Client Server Computing	...	Client, Server, Processing, Software Application
Server Based Computing	...	Client, Server, Processing, Software Application

Suppose you have large servers with a lot of processor capacity and memory that is unused, but the organization keeps buying new servers every month. It may be wise to replace various client-server applications with server-based applications, allowing you to make more efficient use of the server's capacity. This also applies to software applications in the cloud and virtual servers.